#Uttar Pradesh : Draft Voter List Published 2.89 crore voters excluded and 12.55 crore retained out of 15.44 crore listed earlier ; Akhilesh Yadav Warns EC

Picture : @yadavakhilesh/X

The draft electoral roll for Uttar Pradesh was published  after a Special Intensive Revision exercise, with 2.89 crore voters excluded and 12.55 crore retained out of 15.44 crore listed earlier, Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said .

According to media reports, The 2.89 crore voters, or 18.70 per cent, could not be included in the draft list due to deaths, permanent migration or multiple registrations, he said, addressing a press conference in Lucknow.

The final electoral list will be published on March 6, Rinwa added. The opposition parties in UP have criticised the draft electoral roll after the SIR exercise.

Talking to PTI Videos, UP Congress president Ajay Rai said the time allotted for the SIR exercise was short.

“This is a completely hasty decision. The way the SIR process was started by giving only one month in a large state like Uttar Pradesh is unreasonable.

“They gave one month even to a small state like Kerala. Uttar Pradesh should have been given at least five to six months, as was done earlier in 2002-03… Had it been done that way, the booth level officers (BLOs) would not have been under such pressure and suicides could have been avoided.”

He said the exercise would have been smooth had more time been allotted to it and alleged that the rights of the people of UP had been violated.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav warned the Election Commission about the draft roll in Mainpuri, the Lok Sabha constituency of his wife Dimple Yadav.

In a post on X, the Kannauj MP and former UP chief minister said,”Before the anger of the voters turns into agitation, the Election Commission should correct the voter list by taking cognisance of the valid names cut from the SIR in Mainpuri.”